It started, in many ways, with the iPhone 3GS in 2009. As Apple was planning to take the stage at its annual developer confab in San Francisco, a video surfaced on the Internet showing an iPhone running an unusual piece of software–a digital compass that, when the iPhone was turned in various directions, pointed toward north. Lo and behold, Apple announced a new iPhone with exactly that capability soon after.

Since then, rumors of new technologies in Apple’s various gadgets have been bolstered by actual photos and video of the devices in someone’s hands being demoed before the company announces them. The next year, a test model of the iPhone 4 ended up in the hands of some bloggers, leading to a full photo spread, complete with videos and, later, a letter from Apple claiming the device’s authenticity.

A year later, features for Siri leaked widely before Apple held its fall iPhone 4S announcement.

But the iPhone 5 may hold a special place as one of the most prolifically photographed devices before an official announcement. Images of the device were popping up on blogs across the globe, complete with images of the company’s new “Lightning” charging cable and even the “EarPod” headphones.

What’s happening? Many Apple watchers say that as the company’s supply chain has grown, it’s become a herculean task to keep anything being mass produced under wraps.

Every iPhone other than the original has been released within weeks of being unveiled. So, as analysts often say, large-scale production will have started long before then. And that means more prying eyes and likelihood for leaks.

In a more unusual development, inactive links related to the announcements of the iPhone 5, new iPods and a new version of iTunes were discovered on Apple’s own website before the announcement. Apple’s website has pre-announced things before, however, possibly as a result of miscommunication between company employees.

More cynical minds could wonder whether any of these leaks are calculated. If they are, they run counter to comments from Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who said in May at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference that the company was going to “double down” on secrecy concerning the company’s products.

In any case, the announcement of the iPhone 5 was widely foreshadowed, resulting in few surprises to excite the Apple faithful. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, even raised this in a note to investors shortly after the announcement, saying “the phone itself was largely in-line with investor and consumer expectations given various photos of the phone from blogs.”

But Munster doesn’t expect that to slow sales. In fact, he raised his September quarter targets, saying he expects Apple to sell 27.2 million iPhones by the end of the quarter, on the back of potentially 6 million to 10 million unit sales between the iPhone 5’s Sept. 21 launch date and the end of the month.